From the days when flying logos ruled the air, the art of broadcast design has evolved at an accelerated pace, adapting to the tremendous growth and diversity in the broadcast industry.

With the big-bang-scale explosion of broadcast and other distribution outlets, the competition to attract the appropriate kind of eyeballs has prompted stronger branding initiatives on behalf of these programming animals. These initiatives have led to new approaches to design. New looks incorporate typography, different animation styles, live action and other elements in an effort to put, as one bd practitioner says, a human face on stations which must distinguish themselves as the channels flick by at a faster rate.

The growth of broadcast opportunity in Canada has seen many established post and animation companies apply their design ethic to the task, and other new companies emerge to take part in the burgeoning market, particularly in the Toronto broadcast hub.

Here, some of the players in the broadcast design market discuss their approach to the art of design, carving a niche, the evolution of the market, and some of their recent projects.

Soho Post and Graphics has been a post player in Toronto for more than 15 years, but in the last several years has established a position in broadcast design in Canada, and more recently, in the u.s.

Under the administration of creative director Tony Cleave, who joined the shop three years ago, the company has undertaken major redesigns for cbc and Showcase as well as design work on cbc’s Hockey Night In Canada, and Treehouse tv and has won handfuls of domestic and international awards. Recently, the shop completed show-opening packages for CNN International’s news service in Europe, Asia and Africa (see CNNI’s morning glory, p. VI-6), and is gearing up for a new job out of espn.

Speaking from this month’s Promax/bda show in San Francisco, gathering place for the global design industry, Cleave points to the explosion of distribution outlets, in evidence at the show as nowhere else, and the corollary opportunities for design talent.

‘You can see it here,’ said Cleave. ‘Not only are there so many brand new independent channels, but also the existing network and cable brands are launching sub-brands. There’s so much more narrowcasting now.’

With that trend, Cleave and others in the field cite the increasing importance of strong design initiatives.

‘It’s become more important for broadcasters to differentiate themselves and find a compelling way to attract a viewer,’ says Cleave. ‘The programs will keep the viewers but you want to get someone to pause even for a moment to think about what they’re seeing, whether it’s an id or whatever, and then maybe stay on board.’

With a broadcast background, including stints at cbc and Global, Cleave came to Soho during a time when the broadcast design scene was beginning to change rapidly. ‘When I came to Soho I could contribute on a different level from what they had done before. There weren’t too many post shops doing design in-house at that time.’

Cleave cites the change to an all-encompassing approach to design projects where a shop has a larger creative scope to orchestrate a project from end to end.

‘The refreshing thing about designing for the screen is that in most cases we get the job based on our creative, so in fact we become the agency, the design firm, the production house and the editing house,’ says Cleave. ‘We served up the whole thing from beginning to final product, except audio, and now we are even offering an audio service.’

Cleave points to the increased specialization and the dual role of the designer in interpreting a station’s identity.

‘I find we are having success in not only coming up with exciting pictures and ideas for moving things around on the screen, but doing research and understanding the personality of the channel and being able to design around that. It certainly isn’t arbitrary.’

Soho’s recent cnni job was conducted online, with storyboards and QuickTime movies sent and approvals done over the Internet. The espn job will employ the same approach.

The increasing irrelevance of borders provides a great opportunity for Canadian shops in the design world, says Cleave, where establishing working relationships is key to building a good reel.

Toronto’s Spin Productions has undertaken major initiatives in the past few years to round out its design capabilities, recently restructuring and forging affiliations with Toronto designer Paul Sych and BarkinHot Studios of Toronto as well as Arf & Co. out of the u.s.

Sych has been a design presence on the Toronto scene for more than 10 years, working as a type designer with Reactor and then through his own company Faith. Sych has also worked on commercial and broadcast jobs, and done design work for tsn and other broadcasters.

‘There has been a revolution of sorts in broadcast,’ says Sych, ‘driven in part by designers and illustrators primarily versed in print who are now invited to participate in moving pictures. They bring a different sensibility to how things move than people who have always worked with moving images.’

Spin president Connie Dercho cites the change over the past five years, from the ‘big 3D logo’ ethic to a broader approach – a ‘coming together of design.

‘It’s not just one medium, it’s more of a graphic presentation using different tools,’ says Dercho. ‘It’s not just about using one form of expression – it becomes a real expression of art and gives a real signature to the broadcaster.’

Dercho points to the increasing focus of Canadian broadcast design work: ‘The intelligence of the ideas is coming through.’

With its own newly focused efforts, Spin is expanding its presence in the Canadian design market: the shop recently completed another installment of the Global package and has been awarded an 18-id package for ytv. Spin has been working with Global for the past year and a half and this latest effort will be its fifth interpretation of the Global on-air look. The result of the 10-week production, helmed by creative director Joe Sherman and senior animator Marg McGhie, will air at the end of July.

Leveraging the shop’s experience and Sych’s expertise, Dercho says Spin is looking to garner u.s. work, aiming in particular at the projects entailing comprehensive creative input.

Dercho brings experience with u.s. nets like cbs and abc to her post and says that in addition to a dollar advantage, u.s. casters are looking to Canada for new design ideas.

‘If you have a reel, I find they are open to you and to new ideas; they love to discover a new group of talent,’ says Dercho. ‘And if they find someone who is delivering creative ideas, the relationship can continue and continue.’

Toronto’s Cuppa Coffee has made its mark in the Canadian and international broadcast design field by providing that distinct approach. The company is currently bustling with series work, including Crashbox for HBO Family, Clever Trevor, for Cartoon Network, a cbs Christmas special called Snowden and Friends, and a pilot for Nickelodeon called Super Why.

But Cuppa launched itself with design work for MuchMusic, and building a reel of eclectic pan-media-style work, the company continued with major redesign jobs for Disney and work for Turner Networks, espn, cbc and Italy’s cni. Last year, the shop scored an impressive 11 citations at the Promax/BDA Awards. Cuppa recently completed a project for u.s. channel VH1, creating an on-air look for the music station’s new show Random Play.

With the increasing competition among broadcasters, and the sharper focus on grabbing that demographic, Cuppa’s Adam Shaheen says there has been a rise in ‘strategizing and theorizing,’ sometimes to the detriment of the end product. While the shop’s goal is to deliver a new look that delivers the message or the identity desired by the broadcaster, Shaheen points to a new research-centric scientific approach which could potentially confine creative freshness.

‘It’s a shame because I think one of the things people like about our work is there is a spontaneity about it,’ he says.

Typically, when a job comes to the shop, says the head bean, it comes with the broadcaster’s ideas – which can be cohesive or vague – about what should be conveyed. Once the ideas are fleshed out, the shop ‘runs with it,’ adding its creative stamp, working with feedback and then completing its creative process to deliver something fresh and engaging. But sometimes, and increasingly, says Shaheen, that process must fall in line with the ‘science’ of a channel’s collected wisdom on the manipulation of its image.

‘Good design comes from a lot of places; one of them can be the gut,’ says Shaheen. ‘Good designers have a flair for pulling from somewhere inside them and designing in a way that is appropriate and passionate and unique, and I don’t see enough of that going on in tv.’

Seven-year-old Toronto shop Big Animation has also established itself with a significant roster of u.s. broadcast clients. The company was launched in 1992 by Jocelyne Meinert and has done work for many of the Canadian broadcasters as well as u.s. specialties and nets including abc (ABC News and ABC Sports), cbs, hbo, pbs, espn and Time Warner.

Big has designed an opening for 20/20 for abc as well as various sports program work, including NFL Monday Night Football for which the company won an Emmy in 1997. A new nfl job will entail integration of cg with live action elements, shot in Toronto earlier this month.

Like other players in the broadcast design arena, Big’s Chuck Harvey points to the growing trend toward narrowcasting and the resultant design focus required by stations intent on custom tailoring their image. Harvey says the level of creative input from the company varies – from developing creative and concept frames and doing storyboards to interpreting the station’s creative.

Big recently won an assignment for hbo boxing (winning out over 13 other shops), which involved full creative latitude to present concepts and storyboards to a client open to different approaches. Big currently derives a large portion of its work from a full range of broadcast design and is gearing up to extend its services further by providing virtual set design.

Another Toronto company, Crush, has expanded its own design resources with the addition of two artists and a move to a new space located in a Toronto broadcast and production heartland. Designers Dale Smith, formerly senior art director at City/Much/Bravo, and Kathi Prosser, a print/multimedia designer and art director, recently joined the Crush team from Spin.

The newly fortified office offers design, online and graphics with a Henry suite and Mac. The new space was conceived as a design studio – a comfortable place to facilitate creation and sharing of ideas across a range of disciplines – rather than as a post shop.

In addition to commercial work, Crush is actively pursuing broadcast design as well as titles, and has done work for broadcasters including cbc, a large volume of work for MuchMusic and the complete launch of MuchMoreMusic. Before the move, Crush artists also worked on tsn and did production work on the ctv redesign through Pittard Sullivan.

Crush president, designer and Henry artist Gary Thomas points to the evolution of broadcast design away from cg logos and toward a more engaging look utilizing filmed material and typography and other elements.

‘I think some of the time people come to us because they like more textural kinds of things,’ says Thomas. ‘That can range from a very involved look to something very clean and simple.’

While the old school of broadcast design lent homogeneity, says Thomas, what works in the era of infinite channels is something that puts a face on a network.

‘We’re finding now that people want to see humanity; stations want people to identify with them in some way,’ says Thomas.

Addressing that requirement, Crush integrates the strengths of print and moving picture image-making. While the print-oriented artists attack the basic structures of the design process, the Henry artists – Thomas and Sean Cochrane – bring a more fluid, on-the-fly sensibility.

‘Coming from the Henry side, rather than doing a detailed blueprint in advance, we go in with a palette of things we want to try and things evolve as we go,’ says Thomas. ‘I think broadcasters are looking for enthusiasm, for input, and people who are keen on what they’re doing, not just punching things out.’